Chicago, August 20: A key ingredient of heroin could be the safest and most effective treatment than methadone or other treatments for hard-core heroin addicts, a new study by Canadian researchers has found.
The study, titled North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI), found giving pure, pharmaceutical heroin to hardcore drug addicts at a supervised clinic could lead to a higher rate of recovery than giving them methadone, a substance that has been used for decades by some addicts to try to control their heroin cravings.
Diacetylmorphine more effective than methadone
The NAOMI report, published Thursday in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that the key ingredient in heroin- diacetylmorphine – is more effective in treating longtime addicts than methadone.
In the study, addicts who received injections of prescription heroin were more likely to stay in treatment than those who got methadone.
The study participants who were treated with the diacetylmorphine were 87 percent more likely to stick with rehab compared to 54 percent on the methadone program.
“It showed that heroin works better than methadone in this population of users, and patients will be more willing to take it,” said Dr. Joshua Boverman, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.
Dr. Boverman believes the reason why the methadone treatment is not taken by many addicts is that they “don’t want to take it; they just don’t like it”.
To reach their findings, the Canadian researchers conducted a trial in which 226 long-term addicts, who had failed at least twice to kick the heroin habit, were involved.
The researchers divided the study participants into two groups-addicts in the first group were injected with diacetylmorphine while addicts in the other group were given oral methadone, the most widely used treatment.
Study Findings
After one-year of follow-up, the researchers in Canada found that 88 percent of those receiving the heroin compound were still in the study, and 67 percent of them had significantly reduced their drug use and illicit activities.
In the methadone group, 54 percent were still in the study and 48 percent had curtailed their illicit activities.
In addition, the study has found that addicts who were treated with diacetylmorphine “had greater improvements with respect to medical and psychiatric status, economic status, employment situation, and family and social relations”.
“The main finding is that, for this group that is generally written off, both methadone and prescription heroin can provide real benefits,” concluded Martin T. Schechter, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, and the senior author of NAOMI report.
